


april has something to tell jo, and ripley discusses fish theologies

by two_drama_nerds_in_a_boat



Category: Lumberjanes
Genre: F/F, First Kiss, Fluff, Humor, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Love Confessions, Mutual Pining, also i'm still using a school computer to write gay fanfiction, i wrote it entirely in lowercase, i'm here for a good time not a long time, its because im too lazy to capitalize things, its not for the aesthetic, takes place during issue 64, will the school ever find out? who knows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:06:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21946300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/two_drama_nerds_in_a_boat/pseuds/two_drama_nerds_in_a_boat
Summary: "ALL RIGHT ALIENS! WE COME IN PEACE! KEEP YOUR HANDS, AND FEET, AND TENTACLES AND BRAINS AND WHATEVER ELSE TO YOURSELF!"(april has never been one for subtlety.)"april?" says jo, trying to get her to quiet down.april winks. she gives jo that winning smile. "just in case."it's adorable.jo can't stop blushing."c'mon," she says, trying to shake off her feelings. "let's see if it still has power.""you blushing, jo?" asks april.jo shrugs. "it's cold."(that's not why she's blushing.)(at all.)
Relationships: Background Mal/Molly, Jo/April (Lumberjanes)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 20





	april has something to tell jo, and ripley discusses fish theologies

**Author's Note:**

> i realized after i posted this that i didn't leave any notes on it, which is weird because i always leave notes. so now i'm leaving post-posting notes. 
> 
> anyway, i'm pretty much just a big japril shipper and the lumberjanes fandom is so small that we don't have much content at all, so i decided to fill the void. i really hope you guys like it!

mal and molly and ripley are outside.

waiting.

"what could they be getting up to that would take so long?" asks mal. she's upset. she's cold. she wants to go home.

molly shrugs. "it's jo and april. trust them. they know what they're doing."

* * *

jo and april are inside the space station.

it's dark, it's cold, it's damp.

they're in there all alone.

"ALL RIGHT ALIENS! WE COME IN PEACE! KEEP YOUR HANDS, AND FEET, AND TENTACLES AND BRAINS AND WHATEVER ELSE TO YOURSELF!"

(april has never been one for subtlety.)

"april?" says jo, trying to get her to quiet down.

april winks. she gives jo that winning smile. "just in case."

it's adorable.

jo can't stop blushing.

"c'mon," she says, trying to shake off her feelings. "let's see if it still has power."

"you blushing, jo?" asks april.

jo shrugs. "it's cold."

(that's not why she's blushing.)

(at all.)

"let's just go." jo points to a point in the distance. "down that way. there might be a switch board."

"do alien ships have switch boards?" asks april, suddenly distracted again.

"i don't know. anyway, this is a _human_ space station, not an alien ship. aliens don't go on human ships."

"they do in _alien._ "

"that's just a movie."

"a movie you could never get through. every time we sat down to watch it you lost it after the first alien popped out of that guy's chest."

"...i wasn't scared. the effects were just... bad."

"that's not what you said when you were hiding behind your hands and pleading with me, trying to get me to turn it off."

"oh shut up."

april grins again, jumping in front of jo and taking a boxer's stance. "don't worry babe, i'll protect you from any aliens."

"babe?" asks jo.

april immediately straightens up, realizing what she's said. "i meant 'friend.' that's what i meant."

(that's not what april meant.)

they don't make eye contact. they're both too busy looking at their shoes.

"so... switch board?" asks april, suddenly.

"yeah," jo says. "that way."

they walk into the darkness.

they disappear.

* * *

"it's cold." says mal.

"yeah," says molly.

"why are they taking so long?"

"MAYBE THEY FOUND ALIENS!!!" ripley says, lacking proper volume control as always.

"hopefully the aliens are friendly," mutters mal. "and they beam us back to camp."

"...like e.t.?" asks molly.

 _"...i like e.t."_ says ripley, her eyes turning into hearts.

"e.t. better show up pretty junkin' soon," says mal. "or else i'm gonna become a popsicle."

molly sneaks up on her from behind and gives her a hug. "does this help you warm up?"

"yeah."

"do you guys think fish see us watching over them and think we're gods?" asks ripley.

* * *

"jo?"

"april?"

"i'm... well, i've been thinking."

"yeah?"

"what if we get stuck here?"

jo looks around them. "in this space station? the one with people-sized holes in the ceiling?" she laughs. "i think we'll be fine."

"no," april says. she wraps her arms around her torso to try and stay warm. "i mean, in the land of the lost things. what if we get trapped here forever?"

"that's not going to happen."

"but what if-"

"the odds of that happening are slim to none."

"i just get worried. sometimes."

"oh."

april's really shaking now. jo can see it. earlier she would have attributed it to the cold, but it's obvious now that this is from fear. 

"do you... do you need to sit down?" asks jo. "we can sit down, if you want."

"i think that's a good idea," says april. her voice is shaking, too.

jo wonders what caused this to happen, all of the sudden. april's normally so suave. she doesn't _get_ nervous. she protects jo from the killer chimps in her dreams, she arm-wrestles gods, she walks on the ocean floor to go to mermaid punk rock concerts. she doesn't quiver. she doesn't get afraid.

they find a pile of rubble to sit on. they choose it because it's slightly comfier than the other piles of rubble, and it has a shiny thing poking out of it.

("let's sit on the one with the shiny thing poking out of it," april said when they were trying to find somewhere to sit.)

( and jo had said something like, "april, i think that's a shard of broken glass.")

("a stylish shard of broken glass.")

(needless to say, it was the pile they chose. they just avoided the point bit.)

"is something bothering you?" asks jo.

april shifts. "i guess... kinda."

"it's just... y'know... you don't normally get nervous."

"yeah."

"what's going on?"

april looks away.

"oh come on," jo says. she takes april's hands. "we're best friends. you know you can tell me anything, right?"

"you're right." she nods. she still looks nervous. when she speaks, it sounds like she's talking to herself. not jo. "i guess i'm just afraid... if we get stuck in this place, it's like we're that much closer to death. you know? there are dinosaurs here, real dinosaurs, and monsters, not like the friendly monsters in the woods, not like the yetis and the possessed scouts... it's not stuff we can fix, here. and if we're trapped here... i guess i just want to tell you something." she looks back at jo. "can i tell you something."

"anything," jo says. her voice is soft. kind.

_jo's always been so kind._

it makes april's stomach fill with butterflies. it makes her quiver. it makes her smile.

"okay," april says. "i guess... i've just kind of always wanted to do this."

she leans in closer to jo.

april pecks her on the cheek.

* * *

"so," says mal, drawing diagrams in the snow. "we've officially come to the conclusion that fish must, logically, see human beings as deities."

"correct," says ripley.

"and we also have reached the idea that when they approach the surface of the water and they see a human, it must be like a religious experience for them."

"affirmative," says molly.

"so then," mal says. "from there, can we draw the conclusion that when humans feed fish, they believe they are being blessed by god?"

"interesting query," says ripley. "i say we add it to the list of questions."

"i second that approach," says molly.

mal writes 'humans feeding fish = fish blessings?' under a list titled 'fish religion - questions.'

"further query," says molly, suddenly. "is there a fish abraham? a fish jesus? a fish muhammad? perhaps even a fish pope?"

"or," ripley says. "would the fish religion even be monotheistic, or would it be polytheistic? do they see all humans as the same, or do they see us as different people?"

"good questions, all of them," mal says. she writes them in the snow.

* * *

april stands up. she takes a small step away from jo.

"there," she says. "i did it. i did what i always wanted to do."

jo can't speak. she can barely move. she's blushing like crazy, stuttering uncontrollably.

"it's okay if you don't feel the same way," april says. "i'm more than happy with just being friends-"

jo shakes herself out of her funk. she stands up.

before april can finish, jo leans over and kisses her gently on the lips.

it's april's turn to turn red and stammer.

"you feel the same way?" asks april.

"i have for a while now," jo says. she's holding her hands behind her back. she looks sheepish.

"oh," says april. "well then, do you want to-"

KREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

the entire space station shifts.

"WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?" asks april.

"DID YOU TOUCH ANYTHING?"

"NO."

as the space station starts to turn on its side, jo latches onto april, holding her close.

"i love you," she says. "i... i always have."

"i love you, too."

they hold on to each other like the world is ending.

* * *

"no, i don't think the divinity of the fish themselves would necessarily be determined by whether or not they'd exactly been touched by the gods or not, i think there'd be a wide variety of fish saints and each would have obtained holiness in a different way-"

"GUYS!" says molly. "IT SHIFTED."

they look up.

the space station's moving.

"oh junk," mutters mal. "RIPLEY WHAT DID YOU DO?"

(previously unbeknownst to molly and mal, ripley had just snuck off, using her new dino-friend to hop around and on top of the old space station. which may have resulted in some... minor changes to it's location.)

"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT I SWEAR," she shouts.

"oh junk," molly mutters. "oh junk oh junk oh junk..."

"COME ON," shouts mal. "WE HAVE TO GO SEE IF THEY'RE OKAY."

* * *

"look," april says, pointing to an opening in the roof. "jo, look."

jo nods. she stands up to the best of her ability (the space shuttle is still moving) and shuffles over to the opening. april grabs on to her hand, holding on the entire time. 

she never lets go.

jo pops her head out into the cold first, and then april does the same.

"WE'RE OVER HERE," they shout.

the other three come rushing over to them.

"oh thank juno dawson," mutters mal. "COME ON GUYS."

she and molly help april and jo up onto the back of ripley's dinosaur.

"find anything interesting?" asks molly.

jo and april make eye contact. they realize they 're still holding hands. they don't pull away from each other - holding hands feels... well, it feels nice.

they decide at that moment (the both of them) that they'll be holding hands often.

"not really," jo says. "learned a few things, though."

april nods. "yeah." she paused. "what about you guys? find anything?"

"eh," molly says.

"fish think humans are gods because we walk above them in what they perceive to be fish heaven. when we feed fish, they believe that they have been touched by gods. we can also conclude that if there are fish who are 'divine' because they have been supposedly blessed by gods, there must be some sort of equivalent of fish saints, fish abraham, jesus, muhammed, or possibly demigod fish, if fish believe in a polytheistic faith instead of monotheism." ripley says, matter-of-fact.

"...what?"

"we'll fill you in when we get back to the cabin," says mal.

and back into the snowstorm they go.

**Author's Note:**

> if you're curious, the woman who's name is used as an exclamation in this fic, juno dawson, is a famous trans author who wrote the book 'THIS BOOK IS GAY' and other wonderful classics. please check her stuff out, it's great!


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